{"id":2552,"date":"2011-11-18T07:00:47","date_gmt":"2011-11-18T13:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/?p=2552"},"modified":"2011-11-17T23:14:14","modified_gmt":"2011-11-18T05:14:14","slug":"sermon-follow-up-the-lord-is-my-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/sermon-follow-up-the-lord-is-my-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"Sermon Follow-up: “The Lord is My Rock”"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Sunday’s sermon, “The Lord is My Rock<\/a>,” Ryan showed from Psalm 18 that God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s care, protection, and victory can be rightly seen from two perspectives \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one heavenly, the other earthly.<\/p>\n

From verses 7-17 David reflected on the heavenly perspective of God’s rescuing work in his life. God cracked open the heavens and came down (9a),\u00c2\u00a0the earth reeled and rocked (7),\u00c2\u00a0smoke went out from God’s nostrils (8),\u00c2\u00a0thick darkness came (9b), God\u00c2\u00a0rode on a cherub, on the wings of the wind (10), He\u00c2\u00a0thundered (13), He sent\u00c2\u00a0hail and coals of fire (13b), He sent\u00c2\u00a0lightning like arrows (14), and He exposed the foundations of the earth with a mere breath (15b).<\/p>\n

But David didn’t actually see any of that. He believed it all, but his experience of God’s saving goodness was known from an earthly vantage point.\u00c2\u00a0In verses 31-49, David reflects on God’s rescue by thinking about what happened to his feet, his hands, and his arms: “He made my feet like the feet of a deer. . .He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze” (33, 34).<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes God is working out His purposes in the world, and even the smallest parts of our lives have their place.<\/p>\n

As we reflect on David’s account of God’s saving goodness, we can ponder the divine design of specific moments in our lives leading to salvation in Christ, specific people, and specific difficulties. And we can see God’s saving and sovereign goodness throughout the entirety of our Christian lives, as He works everything together for good for those who love Him, and conforms us into the image of Christ. He loves us, provides for us, and makes us like Christ through the most seemingly mundane things.<\/p>\n

So what are some ways in which God has \u00e2\u20ac\u0153invisibly\u00e2\u20ac\u009d helped, orchestrated, and strengthened you (like vss 7-17), but behind the scenes you know all along it was God cracking the heavens and coming down to intervene powerfully and gloriously in your life (like vss 31-45)?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Sunday’s sermon, “The Lord is My Rock,” Ryan showed from Psalm 18 that God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s care, protection, and… Continue Reading ›<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[41],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2552"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2556,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions\/2556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}